Beneath the Bleeding Sun
by Kyra1
Summary: It's the unrelenting shadows, because eventually everyone is lost in the darkness. Yuffie, Vincent, AVALANCHE and the WRO against an already broken enemy. .
1. Return to Midgar

**Beneath the Bleeding Sun  
**By Kyra1

It's the unrelenting shadows, because eventually everyone is lost in the darkness. Yuffie, Vincent, AVALANCHE and the WRO against an already broken enemy.

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**Chapter 1  
Return to Midgar**

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It wasn't supposed to be like this. There wasn't supposed to be anything human. Shinra wasn't real. They had always been so lofty and then Deepground, well, so much had been destroyed. There just wasn't supposed to be anything left.

Yuffie nudged the ruined doll with the toe of her boot. She had forgotten that the city wasn't all Shinra and soldiers and fat men in suits. There had been families and children and parks and so very many smiles, so different than what her father and the rest of Wutai had always spoken about the city. She stepped around the doll and moved along the road towards the large building looming in the close distance.

Shinra headquarters.

She was unsure what she's doing there, but it didn't give her falter in her steps. Without the need for battle and the rush of adrenaline burning through her veins she couldn't help but shrink in on herself. It wasn't everyday one went strolling into a ghost town kicking up dust and digging through the shadows, not that she strolled or would even deign to dig through other people's closets, hell she didn't really dig through her own, at least not without gloves and a shovel. But it was eerily quiet and even in the midday sun the emptiness; the complete silence of the ruined city brought a chill to her. It was almost as though the ghosts of the city itself followed her.

"Yuffie." Her radio prickled suddenly.

It took her a minute to twist it free of her belt loop, all the while grumbling why the man insisted she carry it with her when she had a perfectly fine phone. Finally tugging it free she smiled smarmily into the black box. "Reeve."

"You should be getting close to your contact."

"Good." She said and glanced over her shoulder to a store with its roof collapsed in. "It's way freaky here. I mean the place is crawling with scavengers and looters, but it's completely dead here."

It was too easy to register the surprise in his voice. "There hasn't been any resistance?"

"Deepground?" She spotted one of their silvery masks and hurried towards it practically leaping the last few steps to kick it. The mask bounced and clattered down the hill out of sight. "Nah, they know better than to mess with the Great Ninja Yuffie. They wouldn't stand a chance."

It was his tired voice, so very like her father's, the next time he drawled her name. "Yuffie."

Suddenly she was serious and planted one hand on her hip, then lifted it to wag her finger at the radio as though he could see her through the speaker. "Look we haven't even seen a Deepground soldier outside the Shinra building in over a month, and you tell me to grab my stuff and head to Midgar, to Shinra no less, and you still haven't told me why!" She let her wagging finger drop to her side and jerked her head away.

"Now I'm not one to complain," she started back, anger rising again.

"Yuffie."

The short laugh couldn't be stopped and she waved her hand furiously at the radio. "Okay, okay so I am, but…"

"You're looking for something." The radio crackled loudly.

And finally she was silent. "What?" At least for a moment.

"You'll know it when you see it." There was the sound of a door opening and then murmuring before he spoke again. "Continue to the Shinra building, your contact will be outside. I'll contact you again after you arrive."

"That's it?" She huffed into the box and when it was obvious he didn't intend to respond she puffed out her chest and growled to herself wishing she hadn't already sent the helmet on its little vacation down the hill. "You're the boss man." Yuffie purred a little too sweetly into the box, and then went about hooking it back to her belt loop.

It wasn't the first time he had sent her on some assignment without really filling her in, but it wasn't really like him to keep things completely quiet. Sure Reeve had been a little cautious since Deepground, which meant he kept a tighter lid on situations. There had been an investigation of what was left of the place, Vincent, Chaos, she corrected herself had really done a number on the place. The sudden thought of the gunslinger hovering above the ruined city with those hideous wings sprouting from him sending little black shadows snaking across the ground gave her a chill, and then she was furiously certain of one fact: Reeve would have told Vincent why he was going digging through a junky city.

Like a firecracker popping and sizzling out she gave herself a moment, stomping her feet a couple times for good measure. Where was another one of those helmets? When she was sure she was spent Yuffie dragged herself along the street. The building loomed overhead. Gawd, she would have hated living there. There weren't exactly houses that close to the building, mostly blown out stores and restaurants, which brought the question: Where did the people live?

Yuffie paused at the sight of the other side of the hill. Ahead of her the plate was cracked and falling. The ground had become a length of an oddly angled incline down that spanned several yards before giving away entirely. She didn't think, she'd always been one to just do and hope for things to work themselves out, and leapt onto the plate. Spreading her arms out for balance like a surfer she'd seen in Costa del Sol the wind rushed around her. Yuffie used the few seconds to scan the area, hastily throwing together a plan, and as the edge neared she launched herself into the air. Tucking her arms to her chest she flipped neatly, landing in a crouch across the gap on a small raised outcropping of debris.

The metal groaned underneath the impact of her meager weight as she let loose a smile and jumped to her feet throwing a fist into the air. "Ten points for style!"

And of course that was when the metal shifted forward sending her top over tea kettle to the ground. "Ow…" She whined rubbing the back of her head with a gloved hand where the Conformer from its strapped place to her back had knocked against her skull. "More like a six…."

Before she even had a chance to crawl back to her feet a voice called, "Miss Kisaragi!"

Someone had seen her. So much for ninjas being graceful. By the time she was on her feet there wasn't a chance to discreetly brush herself off, the uniformed WRO officer had almost crossed the distance. "Miss Kisaragi!" He called saluting her as he approached, which strangely didn't satisfy her, just prompt her to twist her lips in that way Chekov claimed meant she wasn't paying attention. "We're all ready for you up ahead."

"Uh, great." She made an overly grand sweeping gesture. "Lead on."

Doggedly Yuffie followed the officer the final distance, all the while wondering what exactly they were ready for. The thought had to be pushed aside to turn sideways and wiggle herself through the collapsed doorway.

It wasn't at all what she was expecting. She knew that meteor had pretty well ruined Midgar and before that Cloud or maybe it was Reeve had told her how Weapon had attacked the Shinra building head on. Surprisingly the interior really had held up pretty well. Sure one of the staircases was lying on the ground in shards and nature was already trying to reclaim the cracks in the ground and the walls, but it still reeked of a business. Maybe it was the receptionist desk with its stack of yellowing papers and dusty photos that still claimed the room for Shinra, despite its overturned chair with its missing wheels. Even in death Shinra wasn't really dead. It still held some strength and that was a thought that she knew she would never shake.

It was the feeling of not being alone and eyes watching her that brought her back to take notice of the WRO soldiers corralled into one of the corners in the back. "The path is clear." One of the men wearing a red toboggan called.

The officer that met her out front walked over to the other soldiers and began digging through one of the packs on the ground. "Our mission was to secure the Shinra building and deliver this to you." While he was digging she covered the distances between them so that when he removed a manila folder he raised it to her from where he was crouched. Passed confused, she slipped the top open and started to reach inside when he spoke back up. "We left two men stationed below to maintain the entrance to Deepground.

This struck her as odd.

"It's still that bad?" She folded the envelope as best as its contents would allow and tucked it away in the pouch attached to her belt loop beside her radio.

This gave him pause and she knew she'd asked the wrong question by the way he stared back at her all angled jaw and narrowed eyes. "There's reason to believe that Deepground stragglers may be returning. The building wasn't entirely cleared after the first incident." There was something about the man that distinctly reminded her of Cid, probably the thick strong odor of cigarettes that emanated off him like cologne. "I led one of the teams that was sent in for a thorough sweep after the incident, but most of them had already abandoned the facility. When we got down there it was much larger than the Commissioner had anticipated. Besides, where else does a rat go when it rains?"

Home.

It took her digging her toes into the soles of her shoes until they burned to keep from barking back at him for the lecture, so was no surprise when she didn't thank him, but simply waved flippantly and proceeded a little to her right where the others were waiting.

The floor was scuffed more so the closer had come to the others, proof someone had cleared the way for an investigation. She let herself imagine Reeve shouting orders all the while that little Cait doll wound about his feet.

The other soldiers clamored about a hallway tucked underneath one of the stairways. One of them nodded to her, two of them whispering and the last one falling into pace behid her as she turned the corner. "Good luck." He called when she stopped to glance at him, then he turned and rushes back to the others.

New recruit, she smiled to herself and approached a large square hole in the floor. Someone, most likely one of the WRO had welded metal rods along the side at an attempt to make a ladder. Some ladder, it was entirely uneven, and just as she had earlier, Yuffie did not think twice. "Look out below!" And she leapt down the hole.

This time the floor did not give way beneath her. The walls spanned ahead of her and she couldn't halt the since of foreboding that came over her as she stood and looked up the tunnel in which she had fallen. It struck her it was much deeper than she had originally thought, and much smaller. Back to the task at hand she moved down the hall, suddenly remembering the manila envelope she had been given. It took a few tugs to get it loose of the pouch, then she dumped the contents unceremoniously into her other hand. Electronics? She shook the folder and then peered inside as though something extra might mysteriously appear, and when nothing else materialized she tossed the folder over her shoulder and grabbed her radio.

"Reeve." The confusion welling within her didn't allow her the patience to wait for a response. "You do remember what happened with Chief, right?" There wasn't really even a point in her pretending to be good with technology. Outside of a phone she was practically helpless. Security Chief Boaz still wouldn't allow her in the Communications room back at the WRO headquarters without her hands being in her pockets. All technology given to her required a thorough tutorial as well as a typed manual; not that she ever read the manual, but it was required none the less.

Suddenly she was all too aware he hadn't responded. "Reeve?" The little device crackled in response a laughing testament of her growing fear of being entirely alone in the corridor.

"Yuffie." His voice rang through clearly.

"What's on the cd?"

"Nothing, yet." Of course. "That's what you're getting."

She tapped her foot along to the popping of the pieces into place. "And the card key?"

"To open a door."

Had she not been around him and Vincent for so long since the beginning of the WRO she would have fallen over at the seriousness of his answer, instead she settled on rolling her eyes and supplying a sarcastic comment. "Wow, I had no idea."

He ignored the comment entirely. "Keep going. I'm sending your comms unit a location."

"To what?"

"A door," Her next comment died in her throat as he continued. "To somewhere we haven't quite figured out."

And she knew he was aware he'd hooked her interest, and could practically see his toothy cat like smile. That Cait doll was much more like him than anyone was willing to admit. "During the last sweep of Deepground we were able to get our hands on some interesting information."

"What kind…"

"The kind that helps in rebuilding. From underground oxygenation to alternate methods of energy and more efficient engines for airships…it's all there, however," She waited impatiently now clasping the radio with both hands as though she could will his voice strait from its little black corners. "We ran into a problem."

There's the distinct sound of metal shifting in the corridor, causing her to recoil like a frightened little canary. When she was certain no one was going to come lunging around the corner with a machete she asked, "I'm not going to like this am I?"

"All references to this location list it as N21, however we can't find an N21 on any of the schematics that we managed to get our hands on."

She glanced across the hallway as if the abandoned halls were still in use, and then whispered. "You think Shinra hid it?"

"It wouldn't be the first time."

There was far more truth in his statement than she would have cared to acknowledge, so she gave a little hiccupping laugh and tried for innocence. "Why would they hide that kind of junk?"

A lengthy pause held her before she managed to let the silence play itself out without yelling into the box for an answer. "That's our primary concern. This is why you and Vincent have been sent in."

"Vincent?" She deflated like a balloon. The knowledge that she wasn't trusted with this all on her own tempted her to stomp back out the front door of the building, if it wouldn't be such a long climb back up.

"He's," There's a slight pause as Reeve can be heard clearing his throat. "Working on something else first. Your concern is that information. I shouldn't have to tell you to be careful, but who knows what else Shinra might have been trying to hide."

Something about his concern made the ninja smile and rub the heel of her boot along the floor. "Yeah, thanks a lot mom." Then more seriously to herself, while she tucked the radio away, "There's no end to their secrets." After everything they had dealt with from Shinra, Reeve had plenty of reasons for worrying.

Yuffie stole a moment to tug out the comm. unit and watched a gold symbol dance across the screen. There was a pang in her stomach as the screen shifted to show an alternate view of the underground passages. It was going to be much further than she had thought. Hooking it back to her hip, Yuffie continued glaring at the device as though it were the sole reason for her troubles. Wordlessly, she began down the hallway, picking her way through collapsed walls and forgotten tools. The lights highlighted her already pale skin and plastered a sickly yellow to her narrow shoulders, but it was the dark shadows from the debris that did nothing to help disguise her slight body.

She tried to imagine watching her own back as she strode through a door labeled N21, a yawning room ahead of her with tubes filled with mako and other insidious chemicals. She imagined the cheers she would get for stopping at the first computer terminal just inside the door, and her miraculous ability to place all the information needed on the cd she had been given. She imagined Deepground soldiers flinging themselves helplessly in front of her as she fought her way effortlessly back to where an elevator would take her to the surface. The image was clear in her mind while she wandered the corridors, smiling to keep her uneasy calm.

It was something Reeve had said that ghosted behind her, and she knew he was probably right in one regard. Who knew what else the Shinra might have been hiding.

Something told her she wasn't going to be home in time for dinner.

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Expect updates every other week as two thirds of this behemoth has already been written. I'm going through editing much of it so that I can get it posted while I'm sorting out how I want to tie everything up in the end. I've always wanted to write for Final Fantasy and am only just now getting around to it. This idea has been in my head and I could no longer ignore it. This is going to be an action adventure with a bit of romance thrown in. Cronstructive criticism is welcome. Drop me a line. ^_^


	2. A Maze Around Them

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**Chapter 2  
A Maze around Them**

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It could have been the next day or a few hours later – there wasn't much in the way of keeping time down in the tunnels like that. There weren't any windows for the painting of sunrise or the darkness of night, just endless halls of test chambers and their pale yellow light. The only gauge of time was the continual rumbling of her stomach, leaving her to believe that it was already after supper, and she had in fact not made it home in time for dinner. A thought she dreaded was knowing that she had made plans to stop by Boaz's office for some expert help on working all of the extra programs that were on her comms. unit. Instead she would have to settle for ninja vanishing from whatever punishment he saw fit to berate her with for missing the training, again, but this time really was an accident.

Yuffie shoved a hand in the pouch suspended on her right hip. A little fumbling around and she tugged a shiny blue parcel from the pack. It was small, but still might do something in the battle against hunger, so she shredded the paper tossing it like she had the manila folder over her shoulder and shoved the chocolaty treat into her mouth. A few blissful chews later she rubbed her stomach, inwardly laughing at the thought of a Deepground soldier chasing after her because she didn't toss the wrapper in a trash can.

Deepground. The name made far too much sense now that she was so far below the surface and still hadn't managed to get inside. She tugged the comms. unit free and checked the location of the flashing gold symbol.

Finally, she was close.

Maybe it was the proximity or maybe it was the chocolate, but suddenly she found a renewed energy and was plowing her way through the tunnels, shoes sending little echoes throughout the empty hallways. And then she was there.

Slamming her feet to a stop she skidded a small distance on the metallic floor. Ahead of her two WRO soldiers scrambling to get to their feet and ready their weapons. When they realized she wasn't a hoard of Deepground soldiers or a crazed Tuesti fan, they lowered their weapons and she began to approach, slowly at first, then when one called out all surprised, "Miss Kisaragi!" she dashed the final few yards.

"At ease boys." Yuffie waved flippantly, as she stared up at the large bulkhead doors. Of course the doors would be so large and powerful, with people like Azul and Nero running around behind them, even Shinra would want to keep them locked inside. "Anyone come through?"

Both soldiers shook their heads. She dug through the little pouch on her belt and handed one of the soldiers the card key produced in the envelope the officer had given her upstairs. One proceeded over to a control panel built right into the wall. He tapped a few codes into the screen and swiped the card. Several beeps of different pitches followed and then silence. She'd already planned a sarcastic comment about the intelligence of the WRO despite the fact she does most of the intelligence gathering, when there's a deep moan. Her eyes were like saucers as the sound deepened and she swore it was coming from all around her as the doors finally began to surge apart.

The young ninja waited until the doors were fully pressed away into their respective walls before she crossed into Deepground. No more than a few feet into the new area, she spied a body along the wall several yards away. Quickly she closed the distance, squatting beside the Deepground soldier. "How did this happen?" With all her thoughts rounding within her skull she hadn't heard the two soldiers follow behind her. His question maked her pause and then she lifted her fudge brown eyes to his and shrugged. "You mean you guys didn't do this?"

"No one's come through here." The soldier said turning to the other dressed in WRO gear that was approaching. "Did you hear anything over here?"

The man's eyes were locked on the fresh body, but he managed to shake his head when he finally came to a stop beside them.

It was all too odd. Yuffie couldn't quite decide what to make of the whole sorry mess, and as she struggled for a solution that didn't involve the man slipping on a banana peel, the doors she had come through began to close.

"Hey, did either of you guys…." She started and raised a finger to point dumbly at the scene behind them. Neither soldier answered, both choosing to bolt towards the door.

She watched the two closely, believing at first they would make it even until the doors slowed to a shut. Both hunched with their hands on their knees and panted to catch their breath. There was silence other than the heavy breathing of the soldiers and then one walked over to a panel like the one on the other side and input a code. It squawked back at him. Yuffie had heard that sound before, but the man tried vainly again. The panel squawked its answer back at him, and then he attempted again. When the answer remained the same, he did something very Yuffie like, and slammed the butt of his weapon into the panel.

Yuffie was startled by his reaction, jumping slightly to see the man's anger ring out. The corridor passed quickly around her when she moved towards the two, and placed a hand hesitantly on the back of the man still panting. "What's your name?"

"Grimm," He managed between wheezing breathes. "The name's Grimm."

When her eyes moved to the other soldier he bit his lip and thrust the gun against the panel half heartedly. He didn't immediately respond so she gave him a pointed look holding her hand forward and wiggled her fingers as though waiting for him to fork over some gil. He stared at her for a moment then sighed, "Colt."

"Alright, Grimm, Colt, here's the plan." It surprised even her to hear how calm and experienced her voice sounded as she laid it out for them. "I've got to make it to N21 and since it's obvious we're not going back the way we came, then you'll just have to go with me until Reeve can get someone down here to open those doors." Conveniently she left out the part where she could use the radio to call Reeve, the idea of being alone again in those empty halls with something lurking through them wasn't all too appealing.

Despite their watching eyes waiting for more of an explanation she freed the comm. unit and flipped it on. It began to download a new target, the little bar at the top flickering across the screen as it received new coordinates. When it finished the screen rushed through a series of long passageways that ended in a hallway that looked no different than the ones before it, then it switched to an alternate view and her stomach tightened. It was several floors below them.

"Come on," she waved and began to unhook the Conformer from her back, "We're going to be walking for awhile, best stay on your guard." And she led them down the hall passed the body with its vacant stare all the while amazed at how adult she sounded, and vowed to kick Reeve in the shins for making her grow up.

Awhile doesn't quite sum up the time they walked. She lost track of how many halls they move through and she knew they've been on at least two lifts, but the silence was the worst. She might as well have still been alone as both the men behind her hadn't said more than a few sentences since they had started out. When they reached yet another outcropping connecting the pillar like structures she couldn't take it anymore and envisioned throwing herself over the edge and how it would probably feel like flying, and what Reeve would say after they scraped her remains from the cold floor below, or worse, what her father would say, after he fell into fits of laughter.

"What's your favorite book Colt?" She said after glancing every now and again over her shoulder towards him. "Surely, you seem the scholarly type." And it was too difficult to keep the sarcasm from her voice.

"Excuse me?" He said stopping in midstride.

His expression nearly caused her to walk into the rail, sending a quick image of her falling over and flying to a jolting rest below with all of the images she had imagined returning. She suddenly grew sick to her stomach, and when she rubbed her fingers across her stomach, they're oddly cool. "You know books?"

He seemed to register the question this time and rushed to catch up with them. "My Darling, My Turk."

"A classic." She'd never enjoyed reading, and it was far too easy to let the sarcasm worm into her words.

"You've read it?"

"Hell no!" Yuffie spat back and tossed him a rolled eye over her shoulder. "It's sentimental crap."

He surprised her by smiling, broad and slow. "You should try it sometime."

Grimm spoke up for the first time in what she thought might be an hour. "What about you?"

"Me?" This stopped her, froze her entirely as she tried unsuccessfully to blend into the scenery. Knowing she'd failed, as she did from the start, she shrugged. "Can't read, had my eyes bludgeoned by a wild adamantaimai when I was eight." And then she pulled her comms unit out and began to read the distance as easily as if it were a cookie wrapper.

The men exchanged glances unsure whether she's serious.

"Come on, we're getting close." She called and moved to the end of the bridge, trying her best not to look down. Ninjas weren't exactly allowed to be afraid of heights, but the sight of the sprawling set of lights leading down gave her a brief stutter in her breath. How far did the towers drop until the ground gave way into the Lifestream? It dropped until they faded away in an almost misty cloud of darkness as though they never even existed. It was unsettling in even her stomach, so she shuffled off the bridge and paused just outside what she believed to be yet another elevator landing, and waited for them to catch up.

Somewhere between the next elevator and the maze of unending silver hallways time slipped away from her, this time however it is filled with an uneasy chatter, the sort formed by a military camaraderie to maintain the semblance of calm with "I like cheese" and "When was the last time you had a snow cone" Anything really to focus, keep the mind from allowing too many stray thoughts, but Yuffie knew well enough that stray thoughts came to her like stray cats, and she had long ago admitted she had far too many of those.

The thoughts were returning to her as they moved into yet another hall. To their left the wall was glass and what appeared to be some form of office area was on the other side.

"But you know how they are …" Grimm laughed with his weapon slung over his shoulder.

The hall creaked.

Everyone froze midstride. Silence crackled around them, electric in the hallway. Closing her eyes, Yuffie cocked her head like a puppy and listened breathless in the hallway.

The floor creaked again, closer this time.

lShe hoisted the Conformer to her shoulder, tightening her grip and shifting her weight in nervous wait. It was too easy to feel confident when the soldiers flanked either side of her. Both men dropped to a knee, readying their weapons. Allowing her gaze to waver to them, she felt herself fill with pride for Reeve's soldiers. They were unflinching in their gaze, and Yuffie felt herself feeding off their energy so that her confidence bolstered.

Yuffie lit the hallway and rounded the corner, only to let out a startled gasp at what she found. She stumbled to a stop, barely managing with her reflexes to keep balance. With exceptional grace she managed to retain her grip on the oversized shuriken, sweeping it in a wide arc and switching hands to aide in slowing the weight.

"Vincent!"

A flash of excitement lit her soft features as she slapped the gunslinger's shoulder with the back of her free hand. "I could have killed you!"

Vincent watched her wearily for a moment, and then shifted his gaze behind her where both Colt and Grimm were slinging their weapons back over their shoulders. "I apologize for not making my presence known."

"Gawds Vincent, you trying to give me a heart attack?" She laughed nervously, realizing he had Cerberus gripped tightly in his good hand. If she would have been a second slower. If she would have been a hair louder in the hallway, he would have shot her. Vincent could have placed a hole between her eyes and she would have been gone before she hit the floor with aim like his. And it nearly broke her to imagine her father hearing this, because in a rage he would have come for him, and Godo wouldn't have stood a chance against the man in front of her. Though the thought of her father waving his own shuriken at Vincent for revenge almost made her hoot with laughter. Dads were such softies.

"That was not my intention." Vincent said dryly, holstering his gun.

It suddenly occurred to her that Vincent had been coming in their direction. It had been quite awhile since they had come to a fork in the road. "I take it the door isn't down there?"

"It doesn't seem so."

Quickly she tugged out the comms. unit, having grown tired of its little screen with its gold flashing destination. The little emblem nearly caused her to fall over. With her best winning smile she looked at group of men beside her. "It's just around that corner." Yuffie tossed the unit in the air, not bothering to hang around to watch Vincent swoop unnaturally fast to scoop the device up just inches from the floor.

When the others caught up to her, she was bent over her knees sucking in air. "It's not here…"

"The map leads here."

"But there's no door here!" She stomped over, snatching the unit back from the dark haired man, and glared menacingly at the screen. If the device had been a person it would have been backing its way out of the room. Nose scrunching up, Yuffie was the picture of short tempered rage.

There weren't any telltale signs of a hidden door, not even a mere suggestion. The hall was as similar to the last as that one was to the one before it. It was one giant maze of identical hallways, and if it weren't for the device she would have believed they were moving in place. There was nothing different around them.

Anxiously switching her gaze between the unit in her hand and the men around her, Yuffie struggled to maintain a sense of authority, straitening her shoulders despite the fact that all her power had been sapped from her the moment they had encountered Vincent. Valentine always commanded authority. Across the hallway the dark man was running his hands along the crevices.

It had to be here. She set her jaw and approached the wall. The door had to be there somewhere.

Tucking the device away, she joined the man in probing the wall, slender fingers pushing and shoving their way deftly into the grooves. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was partially aware of Colt and Grimm doing the same to the wall behind her.

Something clicked like broken glass.

Yuffie stiffened at the sound, displaying her hands for all to see, more than a little concerned that she'd be blamed for breaking the wall. She couldn't hide the embarrassed laugh that forced its way from her lips when the realization hit her. One couldn't break a wall with their fingers.

There was the scrape of boots on the metallic floor, then the feeling of an arm against hers as someone brushed by. When she turned she didn't immediately notice the computer terminal. Grimm and Colt were flanking Vincent, mirroring each other's stances, while Vincent pressed his hands in a typing motion against the wall.

He'd been in Deepground too long she concluded, completely lost his bearings. Then she noticed the panel no larger than her radio flipped forward out of the wall. The buttons were unlabeled.

"I don't suppose any of you boys know how to work that, do you?" She drawled with both hands on her hips, and the Conformer pressing uncomfortably into her thigh. The men turned to her with blank expressions. They were a bit too predictable for her taste, so it was all for show when she crossed her arms and looked away. "Yeah, didn't think so."

Grimm didn't appear rattled by her remarks. Instead, he motioned to the panel and gave a belch like laugh. "There isn't even any identification on the keys."

When she joined them it took her stretching to the very tips of her toes to see over a shoulder. There wasn't anything of recognition other than the one word flashing on the tiny monitor. "Ready." It was only slightly comforting to at least know that wherever the door was, it was still functional. Yes, very helpful. She thought facetiously.

"Rather clever, really…" Colt spoke up while hesitantly trying a few buttons. A rather obnoxious beep replied to his attempt from the terminal. "No one can get in if they have no idea what they're even entering."

"But not completely fool proof." Grimm agreed making his own attempt. Again and again they received the obnoxious denial sound.

If the terminal wasn't so important to getting themselves through, Yuffie decided, then she would have bash its little laughing screen in with her shuriken. Sighing, she leaned against the wall and slid herself down to sit on the floor with one leg pulled up beneath her. It unnerved her to show her weakness in front of them, but her feet were beginning to ache from all the distance she had covered. It probably wasn't the best day to choose to wear one less pair of socks. What was worse was that it rattled her even more to not have any idea of how long she'd actually been wandering beneath the city.

"Any suggestions?" Vincent asked above her.

This surprised her and she let out the best belly laugh she'd had in days. The absurdity of asking her about technology wasn't lost in the halls like they were. Finally after several good laughs with Vincent staring stone faced back at her, she was able to choke back the laughter. She tucked a dark chocolate strand of hair behind her ear and felt herself on the verge of laughing again. "We could always kick it."

There was only a quirk of a dark eyebrow in return making her wonder if the light was playing tricks with her eyes, not that she expected him to laugh at the joke, because Vincent never laughed but sometimes she could earn a twist, rather a slant in his lips. He turned back to the panel as though she hadn't even spoken. It must have been the location.

She quit counting the attempts they made and focused on the hallway, a long silver tube miles below the surface. It struck her as odd that with no windows to look outside that it would have been a dreary place to have lived. She had always preferred the outdoors, running and escaping up the side of DaChao when she was four, after all those dreams of it coming to life and eating her had ended, and would have hated being cooped up in a tube with nowhere to run and jump or roll in clover beds. There wouldn't have been any puddles to stomp and splash her way through, because Leviathan forbid there was no rain down there. It was a very dreary thought place indeed.

Another loud denial pulled a tired laugh from her. "Just kick the stupid thing…."

Although she didn't dare meet their eyes for fear of breaking into another fit of laughter, she felt the three sets of eyes rolling at her. She could feel the hesitation off one of the men like waves of depression, and then the hesitation gave way to a sharp kick against the wall.

"My man!" The words choked in her throat when the machine popped and hummed like a fire.

It couldn't really be happening.

The entire wall opposite the terminal began to rise into the ceiling, though no one was really watching it unfold the area behind it. The men held her pinned with the heat of their gaze. Colt was the first to find his voice within the short awkward silence. "There had to be a short."

Yuffie beamed while climbing to her feet. "What can I say?" She purred practically shining with haughtiness. "Technology and I just understand one another."

That slant worked its way across Vincent's lips. "I'm certain Boaz would disagree."

"Vin-cent!" She moaned embarrassed again, nearly dropping the Conformer as he glided passed her with that smirking pair behind him. Of course Valentine would choose Deepground or some equally depressing place to begin developing a sense of humor. Men never had any tact.

Maybe it was the pinkish light or the uneven feel to the floor, but the section of the grid that would have been N21 was not a pleasant place. There was even something odd about the air, off, almost tangible since they had passed through the hidden door.

"The air's not as stale here." Colt finished her thought, pausing long enough to retie one of his shoelaces.

That was it. The air was fresh. Someone was down there in the pit beneath Shinra. She could feel it churning up icky darkness within her stomach.

Glancing back at his partner, Grimm lowered his rifle only for a moment. "You think someone else made it this far? Who else would have business down here?"

"Someone already here." It was Vincent that voiced the thought they were all dreading. He kept his dark eyes locked on the area ahead of them as though he expected someone or something to leap from the shadows.

"Wait just a minute." Grimm reached out as though to stop Vincent, then thought better of it and dropped his hand. The beaten appearance to the area around them didn't go unnoticed. "You're suggesting that someone's been living down here with Deepground?"

Nervously Yuffie switched the shuriken between her hands. "As far as Reeve knows, we're the first to come in here since Shinra," It wasn't a comforting thought, but she knew it needed to be mentioned, so she bit her lip and sent a yearning glance back the way they had come. "But that's the only way we can explain that body we found."

That did stop Vincent, so that his crimson carried onward before slapping against his back. "A body?"

The surprise evident in his normally stoic voice strangled the small hope that he had disposed of the soldier. She had known it wasn't by his doing, but still had allowed herself to harbor a small bit of hope. He continued to surprise her by drawing Cerberus, not because he was worried enough to now arm himself, but because she was expecting him to be carrying the Death Penalty. The sudden thought caused her to lower her gaze to her own weapon. Should she need it now she wished she had a Shuriken of Doom or Throwing Stars of the Apocalypse. Even Meteor fall was a more intimidating a name than the Conformer.

"But it looks like it's only running on reserve power."

Realizing she'd fallen behind in the conversation she chided herself for being childish and forced herself to focus on their words. Miles below the surface with someone or something in the tunnels with them wasn't exactly the time for her to allow her mind to wander. Colt was the one speaking when she'd cleared her thoughts again. The short man with his long jaw and booming voice was waving his hands animatedly. "Whatever came-"

The hall groaned.

The sound startled the group, each pulling their weapons to the ready, none expecting to see the heavy bulkhead door begin to lower back into place. This time however neither of the soldiers attempted to escape, and Yuffie decided it was probably because they must know that they're safer with her and Vincent.

The tall dark frame that was Vincent turned back towards the hall before them, garnet eyes staring into the tunnel that was the hallway. "It seems we're expected."

Behind them Colt laughed humorlessly. "That doesn't really have the same effect the second time 'round." Although uncertainty and something akin to fear was evident in his cinnamon colored eyes. Silently, Yuffie agreed.

With Vincent taking the point and Yuffie at tail the group moved through the yawning hallways that continued for what she was sure must reach from Midgar to Kalm. When her feet felt too large for her boots the hall opened into a black room that felt expansive even in the dark. Only the light just outside the room showed life, though it flickered and mocked their progress, so that the room swept into a thick inky blackness. They poured into it anyways.

Immediately upon entering there was the distinct feeling of being watched. Yuffie whirled back to double check behind them. Satisfied nothing was lumbering out of the sickening pink light she turned and moved into the blackness. Squinting into the darkness, she strained to pick shape from its formless mass. When nothing came to her she stepped forward colliding with something solid. She grunted and immediately began probing the soft object with her free hand.

"Yuffie." Vincent said uncomfortably.

Even the roots of her hair had to be red. Blushing furiously she was suddenly thankful the darkness was there to cover her burning cheeks, because she wasn't exactly certain of what she may have touched. When she finally found her voice, it was still shaky from the verge of nervous laughter. "Can you see anything?"

"There's a panel over here." And then she heard the unmistakable sound of his footsteps as he moved around her.

By the sound of their growling voices Colt and Grimm were having an equally troublesome time maneuvering in the darkened room. Their clamoring was interrupted by Vincent's voice cutting through the darkness somewhere to her left. "Just a minute."

It felt as though someone were standing beside her. She could feel the heat emanating from her side. An unsteady breath split her lips as she stumbled backwards swinging the Conformer into the depth of the darkness, but feeling it connect with empty air.

There was a clicking sound echoing loudly in the room and then the light above her came on. The area around her was empty. No monsters were lying in a puddle of blood where she had been and there was no man standing beside her. She squinted and raised a hand shielding her eyes while they refocused in the light. Another echoing click and a light further into the room brilliantly sliced away the darkness, illuminating Vincent a few feet away behind a tall counter with his hand still resting on what she guessed to be some sort of computer station. A third light clicked on and the others between them appeared both jumping away from the other pretending to fuss over their weapons.

In a ripple the rest of the lights began to come on across the room, showing just how large it really was. There across the distance in the last ring of darkness were two glowing yellow eyes. Quickly swallowing back the initial wave of fear that came with the thought that their owner had been beside her, she felt her stomach drop. Yuffie hoisted the Conformer and charged into the darkness.

Vincent couldn't react fast enough to stop her.

Metal cracked against metal before anyone could cross the distance. As the last light came on it illuminated the Wutaiian rubbing her forehead in disgust. When she noticed the others, she spun holding the oversized shuriken behind her like a child caught with matches, chagrin written everywhere.

"Well I don't think it's going to get up after that." Colt laughed openly.

Grimm turned his back out respect, though his shoulders bobbed clearly showing he wasn't succeeding in muffling his laughter.

Behind her a large metallic board was littered with large test tubes each filled with a pale bluish liquid. What appeared to be very small pieces of materia were placed in pairs within the arm sized tubes. A shiny yellow pair floated within a tube now adorning a large scratch across the front.

"It looked like eyes." She whimpers pathetically, tiny voice barely audible in the spanning room.

Something in Vincent's eyes soften and he nods. "That's understandable."

The blond soldier began into another fit of laughter. Yuffie glares at him and turns to the test tubes behind her, hoping that whatever was in the darkness beside her would return and drag her away. At least then she wouldn't have to worry about their laughing eyes or Vincent's pitying gaze. She squinted into the liquid at the two honey yellow objects that caused the whole sorry mess. "Is that materia?"

Vincent touched the glass. "It would seem so."

"Awfully small," Grimm said running a hand through his ginger hair as he stepped up to examine the tubes. "Even by materia standards."

"Why would Shinra be using small materia?" Along the wall to the right, Colt is examining a set of support materia.

The other soldier gives a derisive click of his tongue. "Why did Shinra do anything? They were evil."

Yuffie nodded, only half listening. Of course she agreed entirely about the corporation, but there was something odd about the materia. Tube after silvery tube lined the hall each with a matching pair of tiny materia no larger than a set of marbles floated within them. The thought was odd, but what use would the materia be so far below the surface? Was this how Shinra had achieved the technology that Reeve was interested in?

"I found something."

Grimm was poking at a globe shaped vial the size of a person's head on a counter. Each time he would press the side of the glass the green liquid within it would swirl where his finger touched. Yuffie leaned over, nearly pressing her face to the globe, and promptly flicked it with a finger. When the liquid stirred and swirled around the spot she had touched she pulled her head back.

"You don't think it's alive?" Grimm asked running a finger in a line across the globe so that the swirling center chased after it.

Bunching her lips together she sent a rather tired look his way. "No way!"

"Notice anything?" She hadn't heard Colt approach, when she bobbed her shoulders he continued. "There's not any materia in this one."

Yuffie lifted herself back to her full height and dropped her gaze to the floor while she thought. Before she even had a chance to put words to the thought she was forming Vincent was already speaking. "That is materia."

"Please." She huffed and waved her hand as though she was talking to some of the village children about rope escape lessons. "Everyone knows that materia is condensed mako."

"No," he says, "Look at the color. That's what materia looks like before it's condensed."

"You mean the Lifestream?"

"No," He sighed and surprised her by poking the globe himself. "This is somewhere between those stages."

All the information bubbled up in her brain like a math overload. She shook her head several times to remove the bubbles in her thought and tried again. "Then how's it doing that?"

"I don't know." He admitted.

The four of them stood there staring at the globe of liquid materia. If it really was liquid materia, then wasn't it the Lifestream? She was looking at a small portion of the Lifestream, and if the planet was alive and the Lifestream was its blood then wasn't the liquid in that jar alive? Growing up in Wutai had led her to have different beliefs than those on the other continents, and she had always believed that in death Leviathan would be forced to weigh out her honor, or at least until Bugenhagen had blown it to hell with all that nonsense about the Lifestream and returning to the planet. She didn't want to become a tree. If she was going to return to the planet and become something else, then she'd want to be a briar or a holly, something prickly and equally annoying.

Poking the globe one last time and watching its contents swirl, Yuffie turned to Vincent. "Why would anyone want liquid materia? You couldn't carry it anywhere."

The two stared at each other for a moment, both filling with more questions than answers, and when Vincent turned to move along the table she followed doggedly. Many other oddities were strewn about the room, but nothing quite as interesting as the globe on the table, until they found the computer station near to the tubes. The screen was rolling, and only a few of the buttons appeared to be lit, but it was definitely something.

Yuffie threw herself into the chair behind it and plunged a hand into her pouch for the disk that Reeve had sent her. "There's got to be something here." Once she loaded the disk the screen began flashing through commands. Pulling her hands back in surprise she glanced up at Vincent. "I didn't do that."

"It's a retrieval program." He said and pointed to a corner of the screen so that when the image aligned briefly she could read the commands that were automatically ensuing.

When the screen rolled again she growled. Apparently Reeve hadn't forgotten the incident with Boaz either. Part of her felt like a scolded puppy, not having had the chance to remove the information herself. Reeve hadn't trusted her to come alone, nor had he trusted her enough to use the computers. She was going to have an earful for the Commissioner when she finally made it out of this place.

Once the program had finished running, the disk ejected itself. She pulled it from the machine and tucked it back into the pouch smiling triumphantly. "Okay, now we get outta here."

"You're forgetting there's only one direction we can go." Colt called from a doorway on the far side of the room. His rifle was at the ready as he peered out into what she hoped wasn't another hallway.

Something about his demeanor seemed to sink in. Men with those sort of broken expressions weren't something she wanted to see while miles below the surface locked in an area where apparently someone was waiting. The more dejected his face became the faster she moved across the room. When she reached the door, she grabbed the side of the frame with one hand and practically swinging around the corner. What awaited her caused her hopes of ever getting out to fall through the floor. A hallway lead strait away from them breaking into smaller intersections as it continued down into the distance, however it also split to the left and to the right just outside the room they were in, and when Yuffie squinted in both directions each way led to a fork.

"You were saying?" The blond sighed, shoving her brotherly with his shoulder.

As unfazed as ever Vincent pushed his between them. "We should split up."

"No freaking way Vincent!" Yuffie knew she was being irrational but the sudden thought of being alone in the corridors with that presence she had felt earlier sent a chill along her spine. "This place is huge. If we separate, we'll never find each other."

"We'll never find a way out if we don't."

She was running her eyes about the maze of hallways skeptically, trying to decide if any of them appeared to have been used recently. "Fine." Hastily she adds, "But, if anyone finds something then they should radio the others."

It was decided. Colt and Grimm headed to the left, Vincent opting to take the middle hall with its many small corridors, leaving Yuffie to the right. She stood for a moment just outside the door with the globe and watched Vincent walk into the hazy light, lean frame echoed by his cape while his long strides covered the area much quicker than she would have liked.

With a deep breath to steel her, Yuffie clutched the Conformer tightly in her right hand and walked purposely to the end of the hallway. Pressing herself to the wall, she slowly leaned into the intersection checking left then right. When she was sure it was empty she stepped out and moved along up the right hand hallway, already beginning to feel her heart drumming out a cadence in her chest. "Deep breaths girl."

She made a few more turns, cutting through a small office space, or at least it appeared that way at first. It was when she reached the center of the room that she noticed the blood stains. Dried blood was trailing across the floor as though a body had been dragged through the room, but when she turned to her right she hopped a few steps away. Atop one of the desks were several sets of syringes and needles. It was then she realized it wasn't a desk, but a table. The needles. The table. This was where experiments had taken place. Reeve had been right. Shinra had no end to its secrets.

Ready to be free of the uncomfortable room she moved out the other door and surveyed the hall. The blood trail led down to a corridor that broke off to the right. The light above the area wasn't working, causing her to take more careful and precise steps the closer she came. If she chose she could be entirely silent, but something about the presence she had felt earlier and the way it had disappeared so quickly gave her the impression that it would know she approached no matter how hard she tried.

As she neared the darkened area she took several deep breaths. Giving the unlit hall a wide berth she kept herself pressed against the wall opposite it and held the Conformer between herself and the blackness. Even when she was across Yuffie kept herself pressed to the wall, dark eyes locked on the hallway, scanning for even the slightest fluctuation in the shadows.

Nothing was coming out of the shadows. She was on the verge of nervous laughter, so she turned and pressed on, rounding a corner and coming to a stop in a brightly lit corridor. Her heart pounded in the back of her throat, and she bent hands on her knees. At least she couldn't see the blood trail.

Raising back to her full height her senses tingled, and the hairs on the back of her neck began to lift. Something was behind her. She could feel a presence in the hall with her. Unsure if it was the same from earlier, she tensed, slowly twisting to stare wide eyed over her shoulder.

The hall was empty.

Something was watching her. She tried to tell herself she was being skittish, entirely too paranoid for a ninja, but there was an unmistakable pang within her that clawed at her mind, screaming at her to run. But she couldn't move. She tried, but her feet just wouldn't obey.

Behind her the floor creaked, and like a snapped rubber band she was free, plowing through the hallways. Her shoes squeaked with each step, taking the corners at full speed so that she had to reach up and use her free hand to stabilize herself against the wall. This was silly. In the center of a cross section she skidded to a halt. The whole idea of her running from anything was ridiculous. She had never backed away from anything before. Planting her feet and falling into a defensive position she waited with shuriken raised. Several minutes passed though nothing emerged from the hall she had fled.

Something whispered in the hall to the left.

She ducked into the one across from it and peered around the corner. "Vincent?"

Silence full and still called back to her.

"Vincent?"

Further along the hall she was standing in something whispered from within it. She leapt back into the cross section, voice losing strength as she tried again. "I know you're there."

There isn't an answer, not that she expected one.

Her hands were surprisingly steady as she fumbled to retrieve her radio. The button clicked the channel open and she grasped it tightly with both hands. "Vincent." Dark eyes continuously wavered between the radio and the hallways. "Vincent."

When there was no answer she almost growled into the speaker. "Somebody answer me."

Someone needed to know of the situation. As far as she was aware no one had contacted Reeve since they had entered Deepground, and that had been quite some time ago. Her cell seemed tiny compared to the radio, though the familiarity and trust in the small device supplied no comfort in her panic riddled mind. She flipped it open, praying for a signal.

One signal bar wavered on the screen.

There was a whisper along the first hallway.

She ignored it and scrolled through the list of names, hitting send immediately when she found Reeve's. The line began to ring.

Footsteps echoed up the hallway, and she knew they were not Vincent's.

"Yuffie?" Reeve's anxious voice filled the line. "We've been trying to contact you for the last hour."

The footsteps began again, this time closer. She didn't turn immediately simply straitened, body entirely rigid and began to lower the phone. There was the unmistakable feeling of that presence behind her, and she knew as she turned that this time she would see something.

Yuffie's eyes widened as the phone slipped from her fingers and clattered to the ground.

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This chapter was too much fun to write. I love writing Yuffie and Vincent in the same scene because their differences make them fun to play off one another. Anyways, thanks for reading and constructive criticism is always welcome.


	3. The Walls of Isolation

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Chapter 3  
Within the Walls of Isolation

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There was something decidedly off about this section of hallway. Vincent wasn't entirely sure where to place it, the yawning hallways holding their little darkened rooms continued to lead him further into the belly of a labyrinthine pit. While they were white and clean, the walls left him with a distinct impression of suffering, not too different from that of a hospital or even an asylum.

He cut through a doorway into what appeared to be a small laboratory. The large mako filled chamber in the center brought a flicker of a memory. The similarities between it and the one he had spent time in were too similar not to notice, and left him with an awful sense of foreboding.

Hojo had been here.

Like lightning one of the lights flickered, casting bleak shadows across the room. While the light struggled to stay on, something moved passed the doorway. Yuffie had been right to be uneasy. Anyone else, he knew, would have flinched, however the instincts that Shinra had worked so hard to program him with all those years ago told him to move towards the shadow that had crossed in front of the door rather than away.

Unwilling to register the unease building within him, he focused on listening. The silence gave way to a small intake of breath as if someone were doing the same.

Sharply turning the corner Vincent leveled his gun at a fleeing figure. Sensing him the figure froze in that way he'd heard Yuffie claim was all death, so still that it was almost possible to forget he was a living being. Sometimes he could almost fool himself.

The woman turned her head a thick wave of ebony bangs caped over her eyes, but he knew by the turn of her head she was just as unsure of him as he was of her and that question only added more to the tension. Fear was a powerful opponent. Most animals could become beasts when they felt threatened and lashed out at anything they felt was a threat. Judgment was always hindered.

Finally she turned to him, tiling her chin up so that the thick bangs dropped away. Anyone less would have gasped, but Vincent kept silent, readjusting his grip on his weapon and stared at the woman who intently watched him with black eyes. They were smudges on her face, so clearly black that they seemed like something Marlene would have done when she'd run out of brown crayons.

"Who are you?" He demanded, finally finding his voice.

The reaction he received was only a piece of what he expected. Lists of emotions flickered across her finely angled but clearly Wutaian features. Surprise, anger and then she settled on amusement. A quick slip of a lip corner and one elegantly slender eyebrow lifted. "You would come here," Her voice milky even while stressing each word, "And ask my name?"

The weapon he held between them was practically forgotten as she crossed her arms. Everything about the woman from the neatly pinned hair at the nape of her neck to the long slits up the sides of her skirt giving a very clear view of the pale of her thighs just above her stockings screamed frailty, even her small size, but he had long ago learned not to trust appearances. Tifa and Yuffie had been the ones to teach him that.

Tiredly she drummed her fingers atop the leather covering her arms. "One does not walk into a wyvern's cave and demand the wyvern to show itself."

An odd statement.

"You're not a wyvern." If Barret would have been there he would have roared with laughter.

"No," She said smiling, though it didn't reach her eyes, the dark ripples were like stones. "I don't suppose I am."

Although he was out of practice he knew she was studying him, trying to decide what danger he presented, which was practically laughable. The idea of danger and Vincent were entirely the same, so he let himself give her the benefit of the doubt and lowered the gun to his side. Some of the tension about her bare shoulders eased though she still seemed like a bird on a wire poised to flee.

"Well then tell me yours and I shall give you mine." She said, and when he didn't reply quickly enough her lips pursed and she leaned forward conspiratorially. "Have you forgotten already?" A small incline of her head and the bangs fell to hide those dark eyes where light didn't appear to reflect. It simply disappeared. "Surely you haven't been here long enough to become one of the nameless." There was a touch of amusement in her voice.

"Vincent."

"And there it is." The woman straitened lifting one hand idly to rub along her neck. There was the sound of something clinking, strangely metallic in her movements.

Her eyes snapped to him and it surprised even him that he shifted uneasily underneath the heavy black gaze. "I told you mine." Frankly he couldn't care less for a name, but Reeve would have his head for not asking for a name, or at least claim he would have his head as they both knew his success was highly unlikely.

"If you must." Her boots were barely audible on the floor as she stepped towards him like a predator. "You may call me Wren."

The oddity and risk of meeting her here still wasn't lost on him.

Wren slinked away, unnaturally silent as she moved, pausing only to glance back at him, and then skulked around the corner. Something didn't sit well with him. The woman, the long hallways below Midgar, the materia, and the experiments that had been allowed on Deepground and most likely in this place as well.

The hall was empty when he followed. Something was very wrong with the situation. The bleary lit extensions were silent. Sending a glance each way there was no slender figure. She couldn't have made it to the end of either hallway without running, but then he would have heard those silly heeled boots on the floor. He had never known anyone to fully muffle the sound shoes like that made which left only one option. She had gone inside a room. There down the left hallway just over halfway was an open door. His own boots clanked like chains on the floor as he covered the distance.

The room was empty.

He took a step in and holstered his weapon. Although smaller it was of similar design to the laboratory with the materia. There was a counter in the center that ran the length of the room littered with beakers and test tubes of which several were lying in shards. Along the outer ring of the room were several computer terminals some of which appeared operational, their blue tinted screens pale in the overly whitened room.

He chose the terminal at the end, leaned over the swivel chair and set about searching for any information that might lead to an exit. At first glance it didn't seem to hold any information unrelated to the experiments, but a file name caught his attention.

"It's not wise to mess with things you know nothing of." The sight of Wren sitting primly with her legs crossed atop one of the computer terminals made him cautious. That was twice he hadn't heard her. She glanced up at him idly over her nails, a much more fascinating sight than him.

He turned back to the panel, squinting to read the schematics that were now scrolling quickly down the screen. "You know what this is?"

A short mirthless laugh almost like a hiccup escaped her. "Of course not."

Another image rolled across the screen, slower this time, but the words still flashed by too quickly for him to make out. Not really the best at computers, he began typing in commands on the keyboard, the image changing entirely, however the words finally paused on the screen, and the image then moved to the background. It was a vehicle of sorts.

"Mako compression?" He heard himself say aloud.

"Why are you here?" Wren's voice was suddenly sharp as knives.

"I was looking for a way out."

Wren jerked upright blinking several times in quick succession then her lips parted and she erupted with laughter. It was not a happy sound.

"Why are you here?" All trace of laughter had bled from her voice. "Shinra's secrets perhaps?" Her voice faltered slightly. "Their power you're after?"

Sensing his opportunity Vincent turned to face her. Dark gaze leveled he stalked the distance separating them. Rarely did he allow himself to be thankful for his alterations, but there were times when even he had to admit that his intimidating appearance had been quite helpful. "What are you doing here?" a bit of suspicion evident in his voice.

The woman's face remained blank. "I was sent here." Hastily she added. "Same as you."

Surprisingly she didn't balk, turned her head away but stared back at him from the corners of her eyes. The two remained silent, willing the other to speak. When neither did she squared her shoulders and snapped herself off the computer terminal, heels clapping out on the floor as she strode purposefully towards him. Inches away the woman set her dark gaze on him. Their frozen intensity were miraculously empty black like a channel that held hellish voices speaking dark prophecies that called children to doom.

Her voice was still and contained despite the tension in her shoulders. "Why were you sent here?"

"Why were you sent here?" He countered, unwilling to let her have the upper hand.

She turned her face away and didn't say anything. Intentionally slow Wren stepped away, fingers tracing out patterns along the tops of the terminals.

"You were already here, weren't you?" It wasn't really a question. He had already had the answer when he saw her. "You closed the doors." The dark rumbling of his voice left little room for disagreement, though he was certain when she had turned her head slightly to hear that a ghost of a smile had played along her lips.

"Doors open and close." She cuts those prophetic eyes toward him, made darker if possible by the shadows from her hair. "That's what they do." Then she moved for the door. The conversation was finished. Even if he were to stop her, he knew there was nothing she would willingly tell him.

Vincent turned back to the computer he had been operating and the bluish light of its screen. The radio strapped to his hip began to chatter with static, the room suddenly filled with the tiny machine's struggle and the sound of Wren's slowing footsteps.

"Vincent." The box called, all Yuffie and cluttered by the fuzz and crackle of the static like someone trying to speak through a thunderstorm.

A sidelong glance at the door where Wren stood back to him framed by the light from the hallway, shoulders tensed as though she expected him to leap the distance separating them confirmed her curiosity.

The radio sputtered. "Vin-cent."

Something about the woman shifted, it was as if she was gathering herself for something, preparing for something he couldn't see or wasn't privy to.

"Yuffie." He answered keeping his eyes locked on the woman in the doorway. She didn't dare move, and he found himself mimicking the frozen rigidity in his own shoulders.

"Som-" The voice tiny and desperate was caught within the thunderstorm of static. "ans- me!"

"Did you find something?"

The little box tittered with fuzz for a moment, then nothing, just the silence and the hum of the computer behind him. He waited, clutching the little box ready to answer.

Something within the woman shifted again and he could sense the anger within her from across the room.

"Yuffie?" He waited already knowing that she wouldn't answer. Tiredly he rubbed his neck. Reeve would not be happy if something happened to the young ninja.

"I don't think she heard you." Wren called, finally breaking her silence, although not breaking her line of sight back into the hallway.

For a minute Vincent wished he was better with people and had at least Cid or Barret's knack for sarcasm, so instead he simply nodded, despite her back being turned towards him.

He was just hooking the radio back to his hip when a faint thump from somewhere within the belly of the maze around them rang out all metallic and battle worn. Then it sounded again much lighter before it was swallowed and washed deep into the blearing white halls. Wren turned to him expectantly with her dark eyes wide and waiting, almost knowing, and he reacted.

Practically skidding around the corner into the hallway he was able to cover the first corridor quickly. It wasn't that he knew where he was going, he was simply reacting to the knowledge that the sound had been in one direction, and not even long or loud enough for him to get a clear origin.

Stop. Something told him as he rounded another corner. He broke from a run to a complete stop in two strides, weighing the hall with his eyes. It was exactly the same as the others. Overly white and long.

Then he saw it. Lying at the end of the hall against the wall was Yuffie's weapon. The Conformer was nearly the same color as the floor, slick silver. "So that evil sees their death coming." She had laughed and slapped Cloud across the shoulder when he asked about the thing. The blond had nearly dropped his drink, gold liquid sloshing onto the counter.

Quickly covering the distance he knelt studying the bladed edges. They were still shiny silver, entirely clean and he wasn't certain how much that unnerved him. No blood meant two things. Yuffie wasn't in serious condition, yet, but then neither was her opponent whoever that might have been. And for her not to have injured her opponent could only mean that she had been caught off guard, because as much as the others or Reeve wouldn't have wanted to admit it, Yuffie was more than a capable fighter albeit a bit rash and headstrong but he hadn't been entirely uncomfortable with letting her watch his back in the past. Her earlier attack on the materia case came to mind. Definitively brash, but not an easy target. Had she been outnumbered? Other than that woman there hadn't been any signs of anyone else? The idea of something sneaking up on her wasn't pleasant either. Ninjas and stealth were like him and darkness, one and the same. Ninjas were keenly aware of their surroundings, entirely difficult to surprise one. But then that woman hadn't made the softest of sounds when she entered the room behind him.

Yuffie had known something was off about this place just as he had, and yet he had made them all separate. The familiar taste of guilt was tracing its bitter path up the back of his throat. If only he would have let them stay as a group.

When he scooped up the Conformer it was strangely warm against his skin as if it had been left in the sun. Absently he rotated the weapon in his hand glancing about the hallway half expecting to see that woman making her way along the wall with those eyes fixated on him, but there was nothing.

Ahead the hall broke into a cross section, behind him, the way he had come. He hadn't noticed anyone when he had come running, surely he would have felt them, but he hadn't felt that woman's approach.

Vincent tucked one of the bladed ends to the Conformer under his belt then made his way to the intersection, stopping in its center and turning to survey each hall, long silver reflections of each other leading to another cross section, except the one to his left. Along its length appeared to be a section of darkness. As he neared it was obvious it was another hallway, not really a surprise given the circumstances, but the hall itself seemed to be belching forth darkness. It appeared to be seeping into the main hall and no matter how hard the lights with their fingers of gold tried they couldn't pry the darkness back into the hallway. It had to be a trick of the light playing with his eyes as darkness didn't seep. It wasn't alive no matter how often some of his comrades had made mention of it.

There was blood on the floor. As he neared the intersection he could see the remnants of the dark liquid now crisp and flaking away like the old painted walls in the Shinra Manor. It was like the seeping darkness was hovering, mourning the loss of a child, trying to summon it back to the same realm, or like an old pumpkin cut and painted as a warning to those who would dare enter. The dried blood stretched into the darkened hallway as if something had been dragged through it when it was still fresh.

It only took a moment for his eyes to adjust when he stepped into the hallway, the darkness thick and pressing like one of the great fogs that rolled in from the sea near Junon. The darkness didn't hinder him as he moved down the hall, watching the trail of dried blood thin until it faded entirely. It wasn't much longer until the hallway emptied into another large room.

Sprawled in the very center of the room was Yuffie, limbs splayed about her. She looked dead. Her skin was much paler than usual leaving her far too similar to the floor. There was blood smeared along her legs that didn't appear to come from any wound. Just at the corner of her brow along the bridge of her nose was an angry red whelp beginning to form. The only sign to her life was the slight rise and fall of her chest.

He hesitated. It wasn't in his nature to hesitate nor was it really to fly in gun blazing, but something was off about the situation. Why would something attack and move Yuffie only to leave her in the center of a room?

It appeared empty, so he hurried in kneeling beside her to use his good hand to press into the crook of her elbow. He tugged gently on her arm and when she didn't stir as if merely asleep he dreaded the notion that he might be forced to carry her. It would slow his exit and make defense that much more difficult the heavier and one armed he would be. So he tugged again, jostling her so that she let out a deep breath and began to shift. Her lashes fluttered open, eyes lolling about as she tried to focus. Then she locked on Vincent. Yuffie promptly kicked him in the chin, and flipped herself away in one drunken motion.

The pain registered immediately square and solid across his chin while his head jolted backwards. He had to hand it to her. She had caught him off guard.

"Alright you s-" She growled wobbling on her feet but already gathering herself for another preemptive attack. "Vincent?"

"Yes." Simple. Efficient.

"Vincent!" Yuffie flushed and he could tell by the way she started forward and pulled back that she was torn between throwing her arms around him and hanging herself right there by her shoelaces. Something he had heard her threaten on occasions.

"I'm so sorry!" She sputtered actually managing to look sheepish. "I didn't mean-" Her hands were waving about. "I thought you were…"

"A monster." He supplied. The suggestion was just another tug on a fraying string that surprisingly loosened very little at the thought.

"No." When she reached for his chin he pulled away leaving her to purse her lips and clasp her hands behind her back. Disappointedly she laughed. "Not even a scratch. Gawds you're like stone."

"You're not."

Her reaction was instantaneous. As though a hot poker was placed against her she reeled in on herself eyes scrunching, gasping as she swung a hand up to press against the deepening red mark where her brow met her nose. It was beginning to show the smallest inclination of swelling. Then as quickly as a summer storm she froze using her free hand to point to his hip. "That's mine."

Vincent tapped the Conformer with one of the gold claw fingers so that it let out a soft ping. "It was down the hall."

Then he knew she wasn't really aware of where she was. Yuffie's eyes grew large and frozen barely shifting to see around him. "Vincent." She said her voice quavering. "Tell me you brought me here."

"I brought you here." He had never been very good with sarcasm.

All the air in her lungs rushed out with the color in her face. "Liar." She said, but there was no real bite to her words.

If he gave himself a minute to think he was certain that he wouldn't have had an answer. He wanted to ask her about the situation, but something kept him from immediately hassling her, she would speak on her own, she always spoke. He waited statuesque in the dimly lit room while taking in the complete similarities to the chambers he had seen Hojo and Lucrecia use.

It wasn't until she sighed loudly that he bid the morbid thoughts back into the shadows. "I tried to get you on the radio." She was staring at the large chambers also, gingerly pressing her fingers to the swelling along her forehead. "Someone was following me."

When he nodded to urge her to keep talking she glanced at him. "I know this'll sound crazy, but…it was a monster." Her hands were on him in an instant, tugging at the loose ends of his sleeves. "You have to believe me! It was a monster with glowing red eyes!"

"Like mine." He supplied shrugging her arms away.

She pulled away stung, hands still in the air where he had been, finally deciding on a use for them and shook them wildly in disagreement. "Yeah, but this was a real monster." Turning she stepped away towards one of the tables, picking idly through the contents across it. "It was like it was stalking me."

"Stalking?"

"I could hear it. I never really saw it until…until, well ya know." Vincent nodded again when he realized she was watching him. "But even then all I really saw were those eyes, and ya know I think it was enjoying itself."

It was a game.

Unaided she continued. "It was like it was having fun with fear." Hastily straitening herself to her meager full height she added, "Not that I was afraid or anything." Then pounded the table with her fist.

"Of course not." Barely registering the young woman's uneasy chatter Vincent was staring at a computer desk in which the demons within him placed an image. The dark haired woman was typing quickly as she hunched over the computer, sensing an onlooker she straitened turning in his direction. The ghostly woman he knew all too well smiled. Had Lucrecia known about this place?

Then the shadows pulled forth another image from the first, taking and twisting the woman's features so that her hands became spindly and her eyes sunken. Hojo stared back through a small twinset. The man challenged him with his eyes; dared Vincent to step forward and when he didn't the scientist began to laugh. Though he knew it was only his mind reacting to the room around him he found that he could almost hear the shrill rise and fall of the scientist's laughter.

"Talk about the heebie jeebies." Yuffie muttered somewhere across the room.

Despite himself Vincent agreed, momentarily surprised that she wasn't at all seeing the same images from his past. She was tracing her fingers along the wall where long thin streaks too clean to be claws crossed the door.

"Let's not meet what made those." Uneasily she smiled over her shoulder at him, not at all hiding the tremor in her voice.

Vincent sighed. "I believe you already have."

Her face paled as she unconsciously rubbed the darkening mark along her brow. "Then we are SO not going that way."

Each wall held a door. The one behind him they had entered through, and the one across from him Yuffie had deemed unacceptable. He chose the one to his right, Yuffie following his lead and heading towards the other.

It didn't automatically open, so when he pressed the console beside it and it slid to reveal another long hallway he really wasn't surprised. The entire place was hallways.

"It's not opening!" Yuffie was slamming the palm of her hand against the console, and despite her aggravation the door remained stoutly in place.

Uneven footsteps echoed through the new corridor. Vincent waved for Yuffie, and as she began to open her mouth to question him he pressed a finger to his lips, the young woman's face hardening instantly. She dashed the distance, flanking the door frame opposite him practically joining herself with the wall.

The footsteps lumbered closer.

He locked eyes with Yuffie and raised a brow in question. She shook her head and lifted the Conformer sinking into a crouch against the wall. Vincent wasn't sure if he should be comforted by the knowledge that this didn't seem to be what had attacked the young ninja.

As Vincent peered around the frame of the door something flung itself around the corner at the end of the hall. He stepped out gun leveled at the intruder.

"Colt!" Yuffie called springing up.

Just a few feet away the blond WRO soldier supported his weight against the wall while gulping in air. The man's weapon was clenched tightly in his hands. Having heard his name Colt rolled his head along the wall to towards them, face stricken with sweat and fear. At the sight of them he began motioning for the two to go back. Vincent didn't move, throwing his arm out to block Yuffie, effectively clothes lining her across the neck where she fell backwards into a clump of limbs on the floor.

Colt heaved himself away from the wall where his legs wobbled beneath him like a fawn's first steps. When he finally steadied himself he began to lurch forward practically dragging his leg.

It was his left leg, Vincent noted, that bled through a torn section of his uniform's thigh just above the knee. The skin was hideously red against the dark crimson that seeped from the wound where it seemed the muscle was having difficulty bending the man's knee. The sight brought Vincent further into the hallway, holding position to cover the man's retreat while Yuffie dropped the complaints she was firing towards him and withdrew back into the room.

He let the injured soldier go first, swiftly backing through the door behind him. The other man threw himself against the wall again, panting from all the extra effort. "I didn't sign up for this."

Yuffie was scrambling to close the door with her fingers flying across the console so that when it snapped shut the electronic locking mechanism echoed.

"Thought I could get guard duty…" Colt shook his head and let out a short pitiful laugh. "Join for the uniform she said, women love a man in uniform."

"And the scars." Yuffie supplied not as helpfully as she thought.

There were four doors. He had been allowing his mind and the demons from his past to escape their prison and hadn't taken notice of the room or really given it much thought. There were four doors leading in. The idea that this room could possibly be the central hub to this sealed off section of Shinra's underground burned within his mind. If it were the central hub then perhaps there could be a way to reopen the doors into Deepground.

He strode over to the desk where Lucrecia had been, and activated the console.

"What are you doing?" Yuffie called from where she was seated against the wall.

"I think this may be the core." Vincent turned to them, strands of his hair falling to frame his face. "There might be a way to reopen the doors."

Less than a second later the young woman was beside him where she slipped herself into the wheeled chair and spun to face the screen. "I got this Vince." Colt staggered up beside them practically shoving Yuffie out of the chair, so that she had to scramble to catch herself. "I said I had this!"

The man's brows shot up into the edges of his hair, and stated simply. "Boaz."

"Hey!" In a mixture of temper and embarrassment the young woman flushed. "Does everybody know about that?"

"Almost." The barest hint of a smile slipped its way across Vincent's features.

She stood there mouth gaping for several seconds until Colt finally spoke up. "Okay, so here's the main folder, but I'm not seeing anything related to security."

He leaned so that his head was just inches above the other man's, the metal from his claw gauntlet clanking as he pressed it against the table. "Look for anything about the structure."

The file he opened next had a long list of dates. "I don't really think-"

"Oh!" Yuffie swooped lower jostling him forward and practically leaning atop Colt as she pointed to one of the dates. "That's the night ole man Shinra was killed!"

Colt had already begun pulling up the file, a tinge of disappointment in his voice. "It's a log."

_We received word minutes ago that President Shinra was found dead. This could prove an end to everyone's work as the Vice President has shown his disinterest with the project on numerous occasions. In the meantime we have been instructed to continue our research until otherwise informed. If the project is cancelled then we will all face reassignment. _

_I know that progress has been slow in recent years however it is my gut instinct that we are nearing a great discovery. If I can get this new information prior to the Vice President's decision then certainly even he will be forced to allow us to continue. _

_The key to this discovery lies primarily within the WTI test group. These subjects have shown the most resilience as well as the most practical use of the material. However, subject WTI 18 has been experiencing unforeseen side effects to the new serum. This has presented the remaining subjects of the WTI, MDL, and FLD groups with their own display of side effects that can only have come about through proximity as none of the other subjects have been exposed to the serum as of yet. These side effects began to manifest at first as increased irritability which has since progressed into delusions and paranoia. Not one of the remaining RCL subject has exhibited symptoms. My colleagues have since labeled the RCL test group as a complete failure. _

_Now we must focus on the remaining subjects. If we can isolate the cause of these side effects and lower the percentage of occurrence then we will finally have achieved our goal after all this time. I am hopeful._

"So basically Hojo and some other nut jobs were down here screwing around again." Yuffie sighed, shaking her head so that her dark hair brushed along the base of her jaw. Then she stood, glancing at Vincent. "I don't wanna hear anymore."

Colt scrolled down the last section of the screen then looked up at Vincent. "There's only two more entries."

"The last one." He said and found Yuffie leaning back down to read despite her complaints.

_We lost contact with Lab Five during the night. _

_I've spent the last few hours rechecking my notes, but I'm uncertain if I can transfer the main power control back here so that we could lock down the grids. I'm at least happy to know that the security for the central lab is not linked to the main server and that our lab is secured._

There was a large white space separating the final sections.

_Dr. Grier has hanged himself. _

_Juno and I are going to try again to see if we can reestablish the control board. If we can get the control board linked to the main server then locking the grids would allow us to create a safe path back to Deepground. _

There was another section of blank space.

_We weren't successful in restoring the board, though Dr. Juno was able to reestablish communication with headquarters. They aren't sending anyone to come get us. They're not coming. There isn't any way out. I'm going to _

It simply ended. The there wasn't anything to give sign as towards why, although Vincent was certain he could supply his own ending to the story.

Yuffie's face was scrunched up. "They left them in here? They just abandoned these people to die?"

"With the fall of Shinra all secrets were forgotten and before that when their test subjects began to revolt, Rufus closed the doors and left an entire division sealed off to be killed by their own inventions." Vincent spoke, his own voice sounding very far away in the large lab.

"Where are the bodies?"

He was about to answer when a loud thud sang out across the room, resonating from the door opposite that Colt had come through. The others jumped like frightened birds, skittering away from the sound, their fear made deeper by the logs they had just read. The door sounded again, and again in a quick pounding of urgency from the other side.

"Somebody!"

That voice. It was the other soldier. Panic clung to his voice, but he was still alive.

Yuffie flew to the door motioning palms out with her hands as though he could see through the door. "Hold on Griffin!" She pressed the release. It grunted but stubbornly refused to open. Her fingers lit across the controls as the steel was beaten from the other side. "Come on!" When it denied her again she cursed and swung a leg in a quick arc against the door. It remained firm, so she turned and begged with her large fear riddled eyes for Vincent to fix the problem.

Wordlessly he pushed passed and pressed the release.

"Don't you leave me!" Griffon called.

The door denied them.

And then it was clear to him. The door needed a code. It couldn't be opened. Those doctors in their struggle to survive had set a code to lock the door from the inside so that in their fear driven paranoia no one could let any of their hostile subjects in. It had been the last effort to survive by terrified scientists. Vincent let his hand hover over the keypad, eyes sliding shut as his mind reeled for an answer. He would have to bear the burden. He would have to make it his decision as neither of the others could, and he knew he couldn't handle another sin.

Having finally hobbled over, Colt stood solemnly to his left staring at his toes, flinching with every pound on the door as if Griffon's fists were hitting him. To his right, Yuffie was staring up at him expectantly.

Don't make me make this decision. He stepped away. "It's not going to open."

The young woman leapt to the controls again. "Yes it will!" She growled defiantly and he could almost see her with pigtails and clenched fists glaring up at Godo. "It has to open!"

And then it was silent.

Three sets of eyes watched the door. Vincent found himself listening just as intently as the others.

With renewed urgency the pounding begun anew. "Let me in! Let me in right now!"

"Hold on!" It denied her.

"Open the door! Let me in!"

It denied her.

"Hurry!"

It denied her.

"Please!"

One loud thud and something heavy that sounded an awfully lot like a body crashed against the door. Silence cracked its whip.

Vincent looked away. Colt stared at his toes. Yuffie stared at the keypad.

"Let's go." He said and moved towards the door with the scratches.

"No!" Yuffie rubbed at her face. "We can't just leave him!"

A long suffering sigh slipped out his lips. "He's already lost."

"You don't know that!"

It wasn't going to be easy talking her into moving on. Stalking the distance towards her, Vincent's patience had been lost with the addition of another sin to his list of mistakes he had made. He intended to snap the girl into moving but when he met her burning gaze he paused at what he saw there. They were shining. Tears for a man she had only met hours ago were silently unrolling down her cheeks. Yuffie would serve Wutai well one day if all the fighting they endured didn't break her.

"If we were able to open the door, we would risk letting in whoever else is out there." Able to hold back most of the sourness in his voice, Vincent was surprised that it still held a bit of a sting.

"But we could-" The fight in her eyes was dimming just as the redness along her brow was fading as it gave way to a deeper blue.

Vincent shook his head. "He's injured." She watched Colt, his face drawn as he edged himself to the wall for support again. "Okay."

Something thumped against the door.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. A quick cadence panged against the door.

Three pairs of eyes flew back to it.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

"You don't think…" She started.

"I don't." He deadpanned.

Colt called out, heading towards the door. "Let's move!"

The beat continued again, giving shudder to the door in its frame.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

The scratched door opened on the first try. Codeless and simple. To no one's surprise within it was another hallway, although shorter than most with its ten or so feet where it veered to the right.

Yuffie and Colt rushed in. His arm was slung around her shoulder for support. Vincent ducked in behind them.

One. Two. Three.

And pressed the release.

Four. Five. Six.

When he turned to move on he knew by the expression on her face that the door didn't close fast enough to hide the view of the other door flying passed free of its frame. "We have to keep moving."

Open mouthed Yuffie nodded and disappeared around the corner where she and Colt's shoes echoed against metal. His heart should have sunk when he turned the corner and saw stairs. They were going to be much slower in escaping while having to climb stairs. The pair had just made it to the top of the flight. He took the stairs two at a time and rounded the corner where he made to take Colt from Yuffie. He was much stronger, he could support more weight making it possible for them to move faster, but the ninja pulled back shaking her head fiercely.

"I'd rather your hands be free." She said, pulling the blond soldier back towards her. Colt let himself be pulled like a doll between the two.

It still shocked him sometimes to see how much trust his comrades put in him. He wasn't really certain that he had ever done anything to really deserve that trust, but he wasn't going to allow it to be misplaced. She allowed him to support the injured soldier long enough for her to strap her weapon to her back so that she could use both arms for support. Then the two hurried together like some deformed creature up the stairs.

From a few steps up came a grumble. "You know I'm not exactly decrepit."

"I guess you never heard the saying," Yuffie laughed smarmily, releasing the man and leaping the last few steps up to the next landing. "You don't have to be the fastest to escape a behemoth, just not the slowest."

It was actually good advice. Vincent moved on around the soldier who unaided had only been able to climb up two steps. The chatter ended as just below the cadence began to drum up from the door below. At the sound Colt whitened and waved Yuffie back where despite the rhythm below them she laughed and joked about his running speed. With Colt supported the two covered the next two flights much quicker with the sound pressing them on like the whip of a horseman, and that's how it went for four more flights. Vincent waited at the bottom until they had cleared a landing and then he would take their place where his crimson eyes never leaving the bottom.

At last above him he could hear their cries of relief.

"A door!"

"I'll cry if there's more stairs."

Just as the two had managed to open the door Vincent arrived on the final platform sweeping into the bluish room behind them. A faint wave of feeling very high up washed over him as he hurriedly scanned the room. The walls were of the palest blue and the floor a deep navy. The ceiling was a brilliant sapphire like the sky. It didn't seem right that a room this color would exist within the maze of white hallways. It also struck Vincent as odd as there was nothing in the room save the walls and another door. It was entirely empty. Yuffie was locking the door behind them, so he crossed the small blue room and began to open the door.

Except it didn't budge.

The idea that struck him was both brilliant and unbelievable. Had they been led here? To an inescapable room?

When the door refused him again his next thought was mirrored by Yuffie's trembling voice. "We're trapped."

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Whew! I didn't intend for this chapter to be this long. This chapter was originally much longer and I had to cut several sections from it to keep it at a decent length. The villains were going to be introduced in this chapter, however it seemed best to move their section to the next chapter. Many of our favorite characters are going to be making an apearance soon. As always constructive criticism is always welcome. Leave me a review! ^_^


	4. Those Who Never Were

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**Chapter 4**

**Those Who Never Were**

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It was over.

The thought rounded itself in her mind, so that Yuffie felt it echoed in the pump of her blood, cold and thick. It was over. They had nowhere else for them to run. The road simply ended.

Her eyes buzzed in her head, taking in the walls and the roof, searching and researching the room for an exit. The muscles in Colt's bicep tightened beneath her clinging fingers as though the strange intensity building in the depths of her stomach was being transferred to him. It was a burning frost searing through her veins like the winds against the face of DaChao. The sudden aches causing her to tighten her fingers further so that Colt tugged uncomfortably at his arm. When she didn't immediately release him he began to pry her fingers from where they had slipped to his wrist.

The sudden loss of contact ignited within her further.

"There's gotta be another door!" Colt called dragging himself to the wall and began pressing against the pale blue surface. "Help me!" The urgency in his voice draws out the growing flame within her so that she finds herself by his side instantly, fighting to contain the icy volcano growing within her while urgently running her hands along the wall. There had to be another way out. There had to be some hidden panel or door or something. Anything.

The first strike on the door came sooner than any of them expected.

It was like bullets in her stomach. Yuffie whirled to the door, wide eyed and pale, where only a few feet away Vincent stood sentry. There were creases along his forehead and his eyes were slim though locked towards the source.

Then that horribly shrill cadence began against the door.

No one spoke. Three pairs of eyes were transfixed on the steel of the silver door, where it seemed to be holding whatever had ridden the halls of Shinra and Grimm at bay.

Yuffie ground her teeth, nearly catching her tongue between them as she surveyed the room again as though an exit would have grown itself from the last time she had checked. It was a box. They were cornered like some small creature one of her cats toyed and teased.

"That's it!" She yelled, throwing herself into motion. There had to be motion. She had to do something. She wasn't going to wait for death to find her with four walls to hold her in. Whatever was out there, she was going to greet it the best way she knew how - with her weapon, and maybe a kick in the peels.

Vincent appeared before her blocking her path with his slim frame while his jeweled eyes glowed down at her. "It's safer here."

"Safe?" Instantly the sudden rush of anger and adrenaline within her veered towards the man before her. Yuffie clasped him mid arm and shoved, causing Vincent to stumble slightly, then readjust his feet. "We're trapped here like rats!"

Vincent shook his head slowly so that pieces of his inky black hair fell over his shoulders. "This is defensible. There's only one direction to defend." He motioned to the door where somewhere in the midst of the six beat cadence a note shrieked across it. "If there is more than one, then they'll bottle neck trying to come in. This," He paused turning letting the words register in her mind before finishing, "is defensible."

"It's - a - box!" Yuffie screamed over exaggerating the motions of her lips.

Somehow it wasn't a surprise when he remained infallible, ignoring her little tirade and turned to Colt. "How many rounds left?"

The soldier turned the gun over in his hands. "Enough."

"Then we wait." The gunslinger turned back to the door, a statue against anything that might appear.

She knew he considered the argument over, but Yuffie had never been one to take failure in stride, but this time she intended to be mature. Teeth grinding together she threw her chest outwards with her fists clenched by her sides and silently shrieked through her teeth at him. When all the energy released from her tense body she spun away from the man and crossed her arms against her chest. Very adult indeed.

It would have been silent, Yuffie knew, if it weren't for the bangs against the door. It was a six step cadence like the brass bells in the heart of Wutai that rang only when the land was under invasion in which they called out death. Death songs were so varied and somehow the same. Growing up as she had Yuffie had not been unaccustomed to death. Learning the ways of the ninja had been difficult for many, and there had been accidents. Hell, she had seen firsthand the affects of war with AVALANCHE on countless occasions, though there was something about this death song that was unnerving, the precision, the methodical timing. Monsters were not one, two, three, four, five, six. Monsters were glowing eyes in the dark or fat men in suites with big dreams and even bigger egos. Monsters were large tentacle creatures that crawled out from the sludge or aliens that fell from the sky and wiped away races. Monsters were not the ticking of a clock.

One. Two. Three. Four.

It was silent. The rhythm broken.

Yuffie held her breath and listened, catching herself leaning towards the door as she waited for "five" and "six."

No one could pull their eyes from the silver doorframe.

The silence was the worst. It was the waiting and not knowing.

As time began to crawl forward she let herself sink to her knees on the floor, feet slipping in opposite folds beneath her so that she was a pile of ninja limbs in the center of the floor. It would have been a comfort to have been against the wall, so that the cool steel was pressing into her back all solid and firm with the knowledge that nothing would be lumbering up behind her. Instead she sat with the metallic center of the Conformer gripped so tightly in her palm. It had always been a comfort.

"It could be a trick." Vincent said, taking a step back from the door. It was possible it was a trick. Many times when she was little and playing the hiding game with the other children, Yuffie had hidden herself at the corner of one of the houses and tossed a rock down the pathway so that it sounded as though she had left, then within a few minutes the other child would emerge from inside the house. Yuffie wasn't comfortable with the idea of checking the door, and was surprised when neither man offered to check. Weren't men supposed to be brave? Not that she expected Vincent Valentine of all people to so carelessly open the door, but that neither man even moved as though the idea hadn't wormed its way through their minds was in fact very surprising.

It was like being in a room with depression. No one spoke. They simply stared at the walls and listened to their jabbering friend silence ramble on about its horrible choice in colors for the walls. Pale blue wasn't really her color, and the light from the panels above bleached her skin to a near sickly paste. She had always been more of a hunter green, indigo or sometimes even a carnelian if the light was just right.

Yuffie hopped to her feet and strode over to one of the walls slipping down its length so that she rested against it and let the Conformer clatter onto the floor. There was too much time in the room. Yuffie stole a glance at her partners. Colt had settled himself on the floor to her left where his grip had loosed on his rifle, however he still held to it as though the weapon was salvation. However, Vincent hadn't moved. In that way that only he could, he remained a motionless guard glaring down any presence that might enter through the door.

It was like being in a healing house, pale walls, grim faces, and far too much silence.

She sighed, yearning for an end. "When I get outta here," Yuffie drawled staring up at the paneled lights. Someone needed to clean them. "I'm going to stop at the first ice cream parlor I see and buy them out of Chunky Monkey." Her mind wandered off to a hot spring evening in Junon where she had a cone of Strawberry that had already begun melting when she left the store. By the time she had made it two blocks there were pink stains on her shirt and the edges of her cheeks were glistening slick and sticky. "Or maybe Strawberry." Belatedly she added, "Or maybe both." The smallest chuckle escaped from within her, strangled in the heavy air of the room. "I can't ever decide which is my favorite. I'll just eat it all until I pop."

The tension in Colt's grip on the base of the rifle receded like an ocean wave. More comfortable he actually smiled, "When I get out of here, I'm going to ask Ava to marry me." He nodded more to himself than to anyone in the room. "It's the right thing to do."

The thought made her smile. Only a few years prior Yuffie would have rolled her eyes at the idea or proclaimed it some form of grossness, but time had run its fingers through her hair and whispered longingly into her ear until she had found the idea sweet. Even now the idea was simply more of a curiosity than what she would have labeled the average girl's dream, because she had never thought herself average. Average little girls didn't play with shurikens before dolls or spend their sixteenth birthday huddled soaking in a cave telling old Wutaiian ghost stories, and average girls certainly didn't travel with a labeled terrorist group fighting madmen and scientist all to save the world. Yuffie had spent far too much time trying not to be average that she had never really experienced or felt the call of a girl's dream, well, not counting that one moment. Several years ago when she had first met their well sculpted leader, she had immediately decided there was something about his hair that she had appreciated or possibly the lines the muscles in his arms made, but when she saw him split a Grand Horn clean in two the pit of her stomach fell away taking the bud of the crush with it so all that remained was hero worship.

Something she couldn't name stirred within her and she found that she had questions she wanted to ask him, but Colt had already moved on, finishing his list of reasons as towards why it was in the right for him to propose. Then he turned to the dark haired sentry near to the door they had entered. Yuffie's automatically followed and the two sat for a moment waiting for Vincent's turn. He shifted under their gaze.

"What about you?" The soldier asked suddenly impressing Yuffie with his forwardness towards the enigmatic Valentine.

It wasn't all that surprising when he answered seriously. "I'm going to debrief with Reeve."

Her skull cracked against the wall as she snapped her head back at the childlike honesty behind the words. A quick pang danced out around the room so that a web of pain sprouted about the back of her head. Stupid wall. First it trapped them with its horribly pathetic color palette and then it practically attacked her. Now she'd have a bump in the back to match the one in the front.

Of course Vincent Valentine would answer seriously rather than something fun or like a dream, not that he had ever been fun or dreamed anything other than nightmares. The idea fluttered about her stomach, and without warning she found the empathy morphing into anger. For the first time in her life she was able to keep the ice from soaking its way into her words and goaded. "Come on, Vincent. We told you ours."

Ever so slightly his head turned so that the strong line of his jaw could be seen above his shoulder. His shoulders slumped though whether from defeat or the weight of his thoughts she wasn't sure. "When I get out of here," The pale skin of his jaw disappeared behind the raven locks as he shifted away from them, head tilting slightly so that he was looking passed the ceiling. "I'd like to start living."

Yuffie hadn't expected him to give in and answer, and on the off chance that he did she would have expected something simple and boring.

Something akin to a sob choked in her throat. Vincent wanted to live, not just survive anymore but truly live. Maybe it was the loss of Chaos that had lifted something from his soul that had him searching or at least wanting to find what he had forgotten - how to truly live. Yuffie felt Colt's eyes on her, but she couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze due to the sting around her eyes. She ground her teeth together to fight back the tears.

How silly she felt on the verge of tears for Vincent Valentine!

Busying herself to keep the tears at bay, Yuffie sidled closer to Colt who stiffened and leaned away as she drew closer. The soggy stains of blood could be seen across the area above his knee. "How's your leg?"

"Hurts like hell." He said, not bothering to meet her eyes. Instead, Colt focused on pulling his leg upward some so that it was slightly bent at the knee.

A few feet away Vincent stepped forward, reaching out to the panel that controlled the door. Before she had a chance to form much of a coherent thought, Yuffie had leapt to her feet. "Wait!

Turning at the waist he paused.

"You're going out there?" The ninja bit her lip as the six beat cadence resonated in her memory. "What if it's still there?"

Crimson eyes flickered between her and Colt, their depths steeled. "Then we'll face it as one."

Then he looked at her, the lines of his face and the shadows of his eyes were stark and thin against his pale skin. She loathed that expression having seen it more times than she cared to admit, most often when she had done something wrong or when she was being lectured, which meant more often than not. It wasn't that she needed the approval, she told herself, but it was a desire not to screw it up this time and leave everything in a puff of smoke or struggling to survive. Not again. She would not mess it up.

Yuffie scooped up the Conformer and rushed to the gunslinger's side, adjusting then readjusting her grip on one of its spines. When she felt herself ready she lifted her gaze to Vincent. He nodded and then both turned to Colt. He was wearily watching from the floor where he had dragged his weapon back across his lap. A short jerk of his head let them know he was ready.

"Whatever comes," Vincent's voice was low and calm a great wealth of strength in the empty room. "It will come fast."

Not trusting her voice, Yuffie bobbed her head, her cape of dark hair helping to conceal the growing fear she felt welling around herself. She knew it was irrational. It had never been like her to worry, but those glowing red eyes were so unlike anything she'd seen. They weren't like Vincent's. They weren't...natural.

Fear was natural she reminded herself as Vincent reached for the release on the panel. It was many years ago when her old man wasn't quite as grayed that he had walked with her through the fields outside Wutai up to the Phun Cliffs. He had stood with her along the edge of the cliffs where the river poured like water from a basin into the warm waters nestled amongst the trees below.

Godo had stared down at the cliffs for many long minutes while she had stared at the clouds and the birds and marveled at how many more there were so far from town. Then his chin, not quite rounded with age or stress, tightened and he spoke without turning towards her. "Yuffie Kisaragi," As though she didn't know her own name, "This is where your grandfather taught me about fear."

"Grandfather brought you here?" She had asked, eyes lighting at the thought.

He nodded, only then dropping his gaze to smile at her briefly. "You see Yuffie; fear is only a natural part of life. Fear is the cause of bravery. One cannot be brave without the presence of fear. A flower cannot bloom without the sunlight and a seed will not grow without rain. One nurtures the other. Your grandfather taught me that in this very place" And then the child was lifted, his strong arms tightened to the neck of her shirt and raised her over the cliff. Tiny limbs had clawed and kicked, but her father had held her tightly the fabric stretching as gravity pulled her within it. "Child you will not set foot on this cliff again." She had struggled vainly, twisting and flipping her body in hopes to swing herself back onto the cliff. When her energy was spent she sagged against the fabric.

Nine years old and already so very stupidly brave. "I dare you."

Godo released her. Although she couldn't remember anything besides the air against her face, she did remember her father's face smiling down at her when she surface gasping and coughing out in the water below.

_I dare you._ She called inwardly to whatever was on the other side of the door, and bidden those glowing red eyes pierced through her mind.

Vincent pressed the release and the door zipped open.

The landing was empty.

Yuffie ducked under Vincent's arm as he crossed over her to spot the opposite corner. Immediately satisfied by the emptiness of the metallic walls in her corner she turned unsure if she should be more nervous about the sudden disappearance of their pursuers. The dread beginning to drain from her, she bolted to the railing and leaned over it to check the stair case below. Her toes lifted from the floor so that she balanced atop the rail with her stomach the tips of her fingers adding the barest of support until she felt a hand press gently against the base of her spine. When she glanced up Vincent stood over her an eyebrow raised at her lack of thought to conceal herself. The sight of the empty stairs beneath her brought her to lower herself back to the floor.

"Why would they just leave?" Colt asked from his place against the doorframe where he was panting and sweating from the exertion on his injury.

Vincent shook his head and allowed himself to glance over the railing to the bottom level of the staircase. "I don't know."

Nervousness began to slink its dark path back into the shadows of Yuffie's mind. "Boredom?"

"I doubt." Vincent started down the stairs.

"Wait!" She called waving her arms as if they could somehow help her to keep him from leaving. "You're going back?"

"It's the only way out."

"But what if it comes back?"

His next words chilled her not because of their meaning but because he continued his descent. "Would you rather wait here for it?"

Between his retreating form and the pale blue of the room, neither idea really sounded appealing, but the thought of meeting up with whatever had made those noises alone caused her stomach to do its own version of the a triple death flip she had invented two years ago in a wave of creativity. "Wait up!" She called, "Hey! You're not waiting up!" rushing to the railing where she hoisted herself effortlessly over it and landed on the section of stairs below.

Her sneakers pounding on the floor paralleled the quickening of her heart. Staying wasn't an option, but only because the room was blue.

.

** oOo**

**.**

The marks first appeared when he was eight. Long and spindly now, but they were small and circular at first, almost like freckles, until they began to crawl the length of his stomach and chest. As time passed and the marks began to dig their way across his arms like serpents beneath his skin he had become accustomed to the faint design along his body and the faint burn as the marks continued to unravel like ribbons along his body. He turned his arm over beneath the sunlight tracing the lines along his arm. They had grown more prominent in the years following his experience.

He pushed the sleeves to his garment back down to his wrist, feeling the brush of the fabric as the tailed section in the back rubbed against the back of his knees. Part of him had always intended to burn the gear once everything was finished, but another part had reminded him that although they had assigned it to him it was quite helpful with his Task. They had after all done extensive study and created something best suited to his particular Task. Although the marks had shown themselves at eight, it wasn't until much later that the first time it happened. For him it remained a clear memory. It had felt like walking through a waterfall with its thick pressure of cold that kicked him square in the face.

The man leaned back and stared up at the late afternoon sky, large and blue, such a wonderful color. His stomach lurched and he held firmly to the ground with his toes bending the soft woven shoes he wore. It had been too long since he had been above and he wobbled in the light, feeling as though he might fall upwards in the vast expanse without a roof to block his path. A city had been here the last time he was above in which he remembered a booming metropolis beneath a velvety black sky. There weren't any stars that night. Someone else might have seen it as a sign, but now the city was nothing more than a shit hole left for anyone that could stand the smell.

They had been forgotten. It had been such a long time since, since much of anything, but even the notion of being forgotten seemed ridiculous even to his own mind. How long had it been? The man counted to eight and then the years blurred as it was much longer, but the numbers wouldn't come to him. He tried again, counting to eight, but still the numbers eluded him. It had been a long time.

The building below him hadn't seen any movement, since his own departure that had removed the obstacles keeping watch. He frowned, checking the door for any indication that someone was inside. He would have rather enjoyed that part, just as he had enjoyed his small allowance in removing the guards.

Finally the shadows eased and a pale figure, the palest of them all moved from the shadows to the side of the building. Sickly white skin made paler by the darkness around him cut through the darkness, the other man beginning the trek away from the building towards the one he was perched atop. Lengths of almost white hair casted a stark shadow against the already pale skin. The man's robes were of the palest yellow, strikingly similar in shade to his eyes, the colors only adding to the ghostly effect.

"Lazarus." He called, hopping from the crumbling roof of an old convenience store to the stairs of an apartment complex that were hanging at an odd angle. Easily he caught his balance on the uneven surface and leapt to a small pile of crumbled walls. It surprised him as it always did to see the other man look up at the name. It wasn't really his name, that much he was certain, just as certain as Zen wasn't really his own, but like the others his name had crusted and peeled away from his memory with the lack of use.

"Tell me you had fun." He said, allowing himself to step the short distance to the ground. "You were given much more than I think is fair." Tapping a finger against his chin, he smirked beginning a game they both knew well. "Did you use them?"

Lazarus frowned, tiny eyebrows knitted together though they were almost invisible due to their pale color.

"I see." Falling into stride with the smaller man, Zen couldn't help but wonder why his companion had been given the duty. Each of them had received a Task, although some more pertinent than others, but Lazarus' didn't seem quite as tailored to the job that had been required.

The two continued along the road in a sort of half silence. Zen found himself making observations aloud and pausing occasionally to examine objects, whilst Lazarus merely nodded or sporadically lifted a bony hand and pointed to an object that he seemed to think would catch his interest. A particular object had Zen kneeling at the edge of another dilapidated building. He placed the fingers of his left hand to the object, letting them brush along the chilled smooth surface. In a torn and faded red dress an old children's doll lay face up, forgotten amongst the litter the buildings appeared to have regurgitated. Zen carefully lifted the doll, twisting its arms so that they were no longer behind her. For a minute, he said nothing, turning the child's toy over in his hands.

Like tiny pieces of confetti images fluttered about in his head, so jumbled amongst themselves that he seemed an onlooker in his own mind, and so he watched. From somewhere buried down deep in the graveyard like furnace that had been built within him the images briefly spasmed with life. There was the sound of the sea and the smell of freshly caught fish and the laughter of tiny voices all soprano and innocent. The silhouette of a young child began to form in his mind and as the image became clearer he found himself wishing for release from their hold. There were so many voices, and vague memories of a stone fireplace and laughter. There was too much laughter.

Lazarus placed a hand lightly against his shoulder, the touch jolting him from the onslaught of images. He hadn't noticed the other man's approach but by the gentle raise of his eyebrows he knew that he had been far away for longer than was necessary. Shaking his head as if he could physically remove the images, he returned them to the furnace so that what remained of them could be turned to ash.

Remarkably he grinned, looking up at his companion and held the doll up for display. "Kind of looks like you, doesn't it?"

Instantly Lazarus retracted his hand, face faulting into a very unappreciative look that bunched his lips together.

"Yeah," Tossing the doll carelessly back into the pile, Zen climbed back to his feet and began stretching himself as if nothing had taken place. "Your eyes are a bit lighter."

The blond let out a puff of air and strode passed along the road they had been traveling. Satisfied that he had regained control and ridden himself of the weakness, Zen followed at a distance until the two came to an old warehouse. It like so many of the buildings left in the ruined metropolis had seen better days. The slant of the roof and the shards of glass scattered about the doorway were only the beginnings of the buildings losses. It was a strong building to have survived so much and yet remain as a skeleton. It was no wonder why she had chosen this place.

Both men had to climb over a fallen beam and worm themselves beneath the remains of the second floor to gain entrance. No more than a few steps inside when a young lilted voice broke through the silence. "The twins are angry."

Nor.

Atop an old wooden beam that still clung to its place laid the willowy limbed figure like a lioness, eyes gleaming down in the dying light. Amongst the ash and stone Nor's oddities weren't quite as severe. In the only other setting he'd known her she had seemed like a witch from old sea faring tales that he had long ago forgotten he'd ever known, with her hair knotted into tiny braids held fast by beads and scraps of cloth. The tan of her skin seemed dark against the pale white and red paint that wrapped like a mask along the area between her nose and eyebrows. Zen half expected her to swoop down from her perch and begin chanting in a foreign tongue whilst casting hexes upon him by the way she glared down at them with her almond shaped eyes.

"This one saw everything." She said, beads clicking together in distress as she turned her head from them so that she was watching them from the corners of her eyes.

Unsure exactly what she was expecting from him, Zen cast a glance at Lazarus, but the blond's face was a mask of indifference. Resigning, he sighed. "Where are they?"

"There." Nor jerked her chin to a side, causing the beads to rattle like bells as they fought to maintain their hold on her braids. "When last this one saw them."

Tiredly he rubbed the back of his neck where sometimes he could still feel the scars like tiny raises beneath his fingers. He didn't bother to thank Nor for the warning, simply turned to the direction she indicated and began down what was left of the ruined hallway. The familiarity of the narrow space to that of their own relieved him, only then causing him to realize just how much the open spaces unnerved him after all those years in the narrow halls of their confinement. From what he understood, familiarity usually lead to complacency, but with them it was a stepping stone that had helped construct them.

The twins were there. It wasn't a good sign.

Zen felt his pulse pause at the sight of the two. Together they were a frightening mix of oil and vinegar. The two were so completely a part of one another and yet so completely separate that he believed if one were stabbed the other would bleed.

Belatedly he realized he'd quit walking and that Lazarus had caught up with him, expression blank save for the almost imperceptible narrowing of his eyes.

Suddenly Harue stepped away from his sister and began down the hallway the two were in. Both stepped aside for the stronger of the twins as he neared, his anger emanating in the room like heat from a stove. Though whatever Zen expected from Harue was avoided by the other man passing without hesitation at the sight of them. Whatever the two had been discussing now occupied all of the man's mind leaving little room for him to sidetrack himself upon them. Just as well, as Zen had little desire to deal with the larger man's irrepressible anger. He was too much like a split power line, sparking and blazing at anything within reach.

Shizu's gaze suddenly locked on them. Even at a distance the fire was still apparent within the glow of her eyes. She motioned for the two to join her, the sudden nicety not going unnoticed between the two.

"Harue has gone on an errand." She said surprisingly calm when they entered the room.

It was another bad sign. That Shizu would send her brother on an errand rather than one of the others meant only one thing: It was a very important errand.

She shook her bangs from her eyes. "Explain to me why it has taken so long."

Beside him Lazarus did not stir, simply stared back unflinching under the dark gaze. He had to admit that he was impressed that the other man didn't recoil under the darkness of her stare. Even after the many years below and the purge they had put themselves through he still found the utter blackness of her eyes unnerving. They were an abyss of swirling black mass that pulled everything about him in as though they wished to devour him.

Then she turned to him.

"You and I have something we need to discuss."

Without question Lazarus immediately departed, pausing at the door to stare defiantly back at the slender woman. Whether she ignored the gesture or didn't see, Zen wasn't sure. He had little time to ponder the thought because the moment the blond had fully departed she smiled, all predatory and he was certain she wanted something from him. He only hoped it was something within his power to give...or that he wanted to give. "My brother has gone to," she pursed her lips as she searched for the right word, "fix, shall we say, a situation to our advantage, but I have my reservations you see."

He didn't like where this was going.

"I'm afraid that with his temper he may not be able to do so." She smiled something that usually softened a woman's features but on her it only seemed to harshen them. "If my brother cannot succeed, I need to know that you can. I need to know that if I ask you, then you will help me."

A minute drawled by as his brain struggled to comprehend. Something about this question seemed to pull at the fringes of his mind. It seemed like a simple enough question, but that Shizu wanted him to agree to help her sent his sensing into a jumbled flurry. His brain told him that her Task was manipulation and that the wording of the question would be crucial in the future, and that the blurring of his mind to think coherently was only part of her Task, but he found himself nodding anyways.

"Good." She smiled, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

Minutes later Zen found himself standing within a doorway, staring up at the sky as the sun with her golden fingers began to slip away into the horizon. Had he a clearer frame of mind he would have been able to see that his plans were being falling more closely into line than Shizu imagined when she had asked for his help. He would take her help with all the strength it offered even if it was offered inadvertently.

Everything swayed about him. It was the exertion earlier finally catching up. With a hand to the doorframe to steady himself he waited for the burn along his skin to increase. When the fire within him did heat further he clutched at his stomach and coughed. Zen focused on the huffs of air coming from himself, having long ago learned that it helped to lessen the pain. He imagined the pale streaks along his skin, snaking its way along his body, reaching like fingers through his hair and into his head where he knew that it would be over. The key was to not over exert himself so as to use his full potential. It was under those circumstances that the blue vein like trails expanded.

When the pain subsided he rested himself against the wall, rubbing a hand through his short auburn hair.

"I'm fine." He called over his shoulder, so that Lazarus stepped into the dusk light.

The other man smiled, shrugging his thin shoulders lightly so that the long round sleeves of the robe waved around his tiny arms.

He shook his head, scratching at the now subdued burning sensation along his arms. "Yeah, I do say so." Motioning with his head for the other man to leave, Zen growled still out of frustration at having been seen with his earlier situation. "Not right now."

Lazarus sighed and began down the broken steps to the street, where he paused and turned as if to ask again about his condition, but instead his pale gold eyes set upon him in the same unyielding determination they had when he had gazed unflinchingly into Shizu's night eyes. Then he turned and began silently along the road.

Zen laughed without mirth at the idea of the white haired Lazarus staring boldly back at Shizu. But then again, he knew that the smaller man had his own dark secrets where maybe his own morbid thoughts were not aligned with the Twins' or his own. Whatever the case, he didn't bother to offer any remark. Instead, he raised his head to the heavens and allowed himself to fall into the sky.

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* * *

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The last six months have been difficult for me. I lost my job and a member of my family. It's been really difficult to find the desire to write. At last I'm finally coming out of the darkness. It's not easy, but I'm dealing with things a lot better than I originally was, so with depression receding my desire to write is returning.

This was probably the chapter I had dreaded writing the most purely because I have so much planned for my villains and I wasn't sure that the original way I had written them in fit with later chapters. I've also done some revisions on earlier chapters. It kills me to think how Grimm became Griffin and even once Grier in one of the chapters. Thanks to those that have reviewed! I appreciate every single one. As always, constructive criticism is always welcome.


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